Pacific students earn Fulbrights

STOCKTON - Two international studies students at University of the Pacific have taken different paths to earn prestigious Fulbright scholarships.

Jagdip Dhillon

STOCKTON - Two international studies students at University of the Pacific have taken different paths to earn prestigious Fulbright scholarships.

Each will be teaching in Russia this fall.

Nicholas Freeman and Sasha Custer learned last month that they had been selected for the nation's premier educational exchange program. It is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Fulbright awards 7,500 scholarships each year to send American students to more than 155 countries with the goal of "increasing mutual understanding between the people of the U.S. and other countries."

Freeman and Custer received teacher-exchange grants after each spent a semester abroad last year.

Freeman arrived at Pacific from Santa Barbara five years ago, and he will graduate in May with a double major of International Affairs and Commerce and Russian Studies. He is a native of Colombia.

Freeman was bilingual when he came to Pacific, but added another language under the tutelage of Professor Elena Savelia Thompson. He applied for the Fulbright in October.

"I didn't know one word of Russian my first day at Pacific, now I'm comfortably fluent," the 23-year-old Freeman said. "I was thinking about life without Fulbright, because so much time had gone, but then I got an email and it changed everything in my life."

Freeman doesn't know his itinerary, but he will head to Russia in September.

It will be his second trip. He spent six months in St. Petersburg in 2009 as part of Pacific's study-abroad program. Thompson, born in Russia, said she expects Freeman to excel because he immerses himself in whatever he is doing.

"What is amazing about Nick is how little he knew of the language and now he's singing like a bird," said Thompson, who has been at Pacific since 1992.

Before he heads across the Atlantic Ocean, Freeman wants to spend the summer driving around the U.S. on his motorcycle.

For Custer, winning the Fulbright scholarship was more a personal journey. She was born in St. Petersburg and was adopted in 1995 from an orphanage there by a family in Los Angeles.

Custer prefers not to discuss her past but said returning to Russia has been a personal goal since she was 11.

The 22-year-old spent nearly all of 2011 studying the language in her native land and that reinforced her goal to give back and make a difference.

"I wanted to go back to Russia and work for good," Custer said. "I've always been surrounded by Russian culture and heritage ... so I always wanted to go back."

Custer enjoyed her year in Russia, but she said landing at the airport was daunting.

"It was absolutely hell and the most difficult thing I did in my life," Custer said. "Every city has an aura, and you can taste it. My childhood rushed back to me in that instant, and I almost came back to America right away."

Custer overcame that anxiety and will go back in September to teach English, which she believes will be key in helping Russian children be competitive with their Western peers in the future.

"I am extremely happy for Sasha, because she is such a unique person," Thompson said. "When I first met her, I told her her goals were very mature for an 18-year-old girl, and she's now accomplishing them."